When your colleague starts dating a member of the royal family, Prince Harry no less, you might expect to turn up to work and have things be a bit different. More paparazzi? Sure. But MI5 security and threats of being fired? Not so much…
According to Wendell Pierce, Meghan Markle’s on-screen father, everything seemed to change overnight on set of Suits once Meghan and Harry went public.
In a rare case of real-life mimicking art, Wendell seemed to have just as distant a relationship with Meghan in real life as their two characters on the show (in those early seasons, Suits fans will know), since he didn’t actually know they were dating until Prince Harry was flying MI5 security guards over to protect Meghan.
“I actually didn’t think it was real, then all of a sudden I turn around and there is a guy from MI5 on set every day,” Wendell told Extra.
“The one thing that was clear [was that] she was extremely happy. She had a glow. I knew she was in love. With the whirlwind of publicity and the world of being a royal now, the one thing that’s constant is the fact that I know she loves him.”
And that wasn’t the only overnight security change on-set, Meghan’s name also stopped appearing on filming schedules because the constant information leaking from set meant her safety was at risk. Apparently, this led to a set-wide threat of sackings if everyone kept talking.
“It inarguably boils down to security issues,” a source told Us Weekly back in 2017, “Information was leaking out of Suits like crazy. As soon as it came out that they were dating, everyone was warned to stop talking or they would be fired.”
Yikes, sounds like the Suits set wasn’t the easiest place to work once the future Duke and Duchess of Sussex took their relationship to the next level. The cast got royal wedding invites out of it though, so we don’t imagine they’re holding a grudge.
Via our sister site Grazia.
